The articles that Singapore Press claimed were reproduced
without authorization were insubstantial and insignificant,
Yahoo’s Southeast Asia unit said in a defense filed in the
Singapore High Court today.

“There is an important public interest in respect of the
right of the public to be informed of current events in
Singapore,” the Sunnyvale, California-based Internet company
said in its filing. “Copyright law does not protect facts and
information.”

The Singapore-based newspaper publisher sued Yahoo last
month, seeking unspecified damages for alleged copyright
infringement of 23 articles from newspapers including the
Straits Times from November 2010 to October 2011. Yahoo claimed
in its countersuit that Singapore Press infringed its copyrights
by reproducing articles and images on a website.

Chin Soo Fang, a spokeswoman at Singapore Press, the city’s
largest publisher, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail or
return a call to her office seeking comment.

Yahoo approached Singapore Press in April 2009 for a
license to reproduce news content, and negotiations between the
two companies broke down last year, according to the lawsuit.

Singapore Press deliberately kept silent until a letter
from its lawyers on Nov. 4, causing Yahoo to continue with the
alleged infringement for a year as it believed the publisher had
no complaints, according to the Internet company’s filing.